[72] "At St. Paul's the Surveyor was cautious not to exceed Columns of four Feet, which had been tried by _Inigo Jones_ in his Portico; the Quarries of the Isle of _Portland_ would just afford for that proportion, but not readily for the Artificers were forced sometimes to stay some Months for one necessary Stone to be raised for their Purpose, and the farther the Quarry-men pierced into the Rock, the Quarry produced less Stone than near the Sea. All the most eminent Masons were of Opinion, that Stones of the largest Scantlings were there to be found, or nowhere. An Enquiry was made after all the good Stone that England afforded. Next to _Portland_, _Rock-abbey_ Stone, and some others in Yorkshire seemed the best and most durable; but large Stone for the _Paul's_ Works was not easily to be had even there. For these Reasons the _Surveyor_ concluded upon _Portland-stone_, and also to use two Orders, and by that Means to keep the just Proportions of his Cornices; otherwise he must have fallen short of the Height of the Fabrick.... At the _Vatican Church_ [St. Peter's], Bramante was ambitious to exceed the ancient _Greek_ and _Roman_ Temples ... and although by Necessity he failed in the due Proportions of the proper Members of his Cornice, because the _Tivoli_ stone would not hold out for the Purpose; yet (as far as we can find) he succeeded in the Diameter of his Columns, viz., nine Feet."--_Parentalia_, p. 288. [73] The Royal Commissions expired with the sovereign. [74] Mr. Longman gives the two together, p. 143. [75] Tracts in "Parentalia," pp. 352-353. Stephen Wren (p. 269) explains how his grandfather departed from the conventional arrangement of architrave, frieze, and cornice in his entablatures, omitting one or other of these whenever he thought good. Here, above the pilasters and windows of the lower order he seems to have merged the three, and in the corresponding part of the upper order to have omitted anything like a frieze. [76] _Builder_, January 2, 1892. [77] "Parentalia," p. 298. [78] Ibid., p. 352. [79] Ibid., p. 301, with diagram, showing how a wall does the same as buttresses. [80] Mr. Wightwick, quoted in Longman, p. 188. [81] E.A. Freeman, _Fortnightly Review_, October, 1872, p. 380. [82] Yet he preferred the Early English windows of Salisbury to any later.